Mobile Linux

Developers have been trying to apply Linux to mobile devices for over 10 years with rather limited success, until recently. A number of fairly major companies have picked up the challenge which has resulted in a number of very comprehensive Linux distributions targeted squarely at mobile phones.

The Tizen project is an industry consortium dedicated to creating the first truly open, hardware-independent, Linux-based operating system for mobile devices. Backing from major industry leaders puts Tizen at the Heart of the Mobile Industry and makes Tizen the unifying force in Mobile Linux.

Android is an open-source software stack for mobile devices, and a corresponding open-source project led by Google. Google created Android in response to our own experiences launching mobile apps. They wanted to make sure that there was no central point of failure, so that no industry player can restrict or control the innovations of any other. That’s why they created Android, and made its source code open.

MeeGo is an open source, Linux project which brings together the Moblin project, headed up by Intel, and Maemo, by Nokia, into a single open source activity. MeeGo integrates the experience and skills of two significant development ecosystems, versed in communications and computing technologies. The MeeGo project believes these two pillars form the technical foundations for next generation platforms and usages in the mobile and device platforms space.

Samsung bada is a smartphone platform released in 2010. The word “bada” means “ocean” in Korean. Samsung Wave is the first bada-powered phone and will be seen on the market soon. For developers, bada will bring a new blue ocean of mobile applications. For customers, they will have a wider choice of smartphones with cost-effective yet powerful bada-powered phones.

If you are aware of or come across any other Mobile Linux projects or platforms, please let us know and we will endeavour to update this listing.

(Click on the “+” sign next to each platform for more information and screen shots!)